Sorption of uranium(VI) from aqueous solutions by DEEA organo-volcanic: isotherms, kinetic and thermodynamic studies

The sorption of the uranium(VI) ions from aqueous solutions by diethylethanolammonium organo-volcanics (Kula-TURKEY) was investigated under different experimental conditions. DEEA was used to modify the surface of basaltic volcanics. The characteristic of basaltic volcanic was analyzed by XRF, SEM–EDS, FTIR, and XRD. The BET surface areas of unmodified volcanics and DEEA-modified volcanics were found as 2.265 and 3.689 m2/g, respectively. The volcanic samples were treated by using different concentrations of DEEA. The adsorption of U(VI) on natural and modified volcanics was examined as a function of the contact time, initial pH of the solution, initial U(VI) concentration, and temperature. Langmuir, Freundlich, and D–R adsorption isotherms were used to describe the adsorption. While examining the adsorption percentage and distribution coefficient, these values for unmodified volcanics were found to be 25% ± 0.76 and 10.08 mL/g, while the values for the DEEA-modified volcanics were 88% ± 1.04 and 220 mL/g, respectively. The pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were used to describe the kinetic data. In this study, it can be seen that the adsorption process is suitable for the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Various thermodynamic parameters (ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS°) were calculated with the thermodynamic distribution coefficients obtained at different temperatures. The sorption process was a chemical adsorption process. The results indicated that the processes are spontaneous and endothermic.